Have your cake and eat it, too.

Byline: FOOD DUDE By Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

Food Dude is a strong believer in a quality shopping experience, which is why I've stopped buying gas at those low-octane stations with no toilet paper in the restrooms so I can save three cents on a fill up.

Atmosphere is especially important when you're talking about food, and I'll never buy one of those bananas they sell at the convenience store checkout. I'm sure they're fine pieces of fruit, but I don't want to eat anything that's been sitting next to a nacho cheese dispenser and a ream of lottery tickets for three days.

If you're willing to pay a premium for a little feng shui, or if you just want to know how to make dipping sauce out of pumpkin seed oil, write to the address at the end of the column.

Dear Food Dude: I have been using Splenda to cut down on the calories in my cooking. When can I use it successfully and when can I not? For example, I want to try using it in baking cakes. Will it work?

Thanks.

- L

Dear L: To get to the bottom of this, I called Sweet Life Patisserie, which is sort of like calling Phillip-Morris and asking them how to apply one of those smoking cessation patches. Turns out Sweet Life does make several no-sugar cakes and baked goods, although, co-owner Catherine Reinhart says, it's a very small piece of the overall pie.

"We're all about the sugar," she says.

Sweet Life's sugar-free cakes are made with a mixture that contains the corn-based sugar alcohol (meaning that part of its chemical structure resembles sugar, part of it resembles alcohol) Maltitol. Although Maltitol, which is sold under the brand names Maltisorb and Maltisweet, comes close to sugar and is a fine alternative for diabetics and weight watchers, there are some serious drawbacks to sugar substitutes in cakes. The characteristics vary from sweetener to sweetener and Reinhart doubts that Splenda (aka sucralose) could do the job by itself.

"If you only add a little bit of Splenda, it's not the same weight or quantity (as sugar)," she says. "If you take the sugar out (of cake) you end up with bread."

The problem with sugar substitutes - aside from the mild gastrointestinal effects many of them cause - is that they often can't do all the things that sugar does. Sugar doesn't just provide sweetness. It also adds texture, weight, caramelization, browning, moisture and other qualities.

If you must use sugar substitutes, Maltitol appears to be among the most versatile for baking - the manufacturer claims that it does almost everything sugar does except brown and caramelize - but it's harder to find (you can order it by mail at www.steelsgourmet.com).

To make up for some of the baking limitations of Splenda, the manufacturers also produce Splenda Sugar Blend, which is basically Splenda and sugar ( 1/2 cup equals 1 cup of sugar). Since you're not necessarily looking to completely eliminate sugar from your diet, you might try this product, or Equal Sugar Lite, which is essentially the same thing made from aspartame and sugar.

Of course, you could probably make your own sugar and Splenda mix without buying another product or, Reinhart says, you can reduce calories in other ways. You can substitute banana or applesauce for some of the oil you'd use in cooking, or you can try Sweet Life's recipe for dieting success:

"We believe (the best option) is a small piece of cake," Reinhart says.

Dear Food Dude: I often shop at Whole Foods or one of the other upscale groceries and am always impressed with the quality of the meat and seafood. I'm concerned with the nutritional quality of what I buy, especially the salmon, since the word these days is to eat lots of fish. I do question the relative nutritional value of chain store fish vs. stores that specialize in seafood. So what's the story when it comes to Omega 3s, farm raised, wild, upscale, low scale? Am I good to go with Albertsons or Safeway salmon or should I splurge with the upscale, and of course more expensive, groceries?

- Bob

Dear Bob: Food Dude wishes we had a Whole Paycheck here in Eugene. No one does sexy food like those guys, and lord knows we could use a little more sexy to go with all the ugly. Maybe someday we'll have a Whole Foods downtown. Either that or another ugly hole in the ground.

If it makes you feel better about yourself and what you eat, I think you should continue to shop upscale. That's what Food Dude would do, but you know how I feel about the shopping experience.

Shopping upscale may be good for your self image, but it won't necessarily help you live longer, says Jean Halloran, director of food safety initiatives for Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.

"In terms of the heart-healthy attributes, I would say it doesn't matter where you buy the fish," she says.

You may find fresher fish at an upscale grocery store or specialty seafood market, which may contain less bacteria, Halloran says, but if you're cooking your fish thoroughly, it won't matter.

If you're looking at boosting your heart protecting Omega 3 fatty acids, you can also shop for types of fish with higher Omega 3 levels. Herring is an especially good choice, along with salmon, rainbow trout and oysters. Interestingly, wild salmon may have slightly lower levels of Omega 3s than farm-raised salmon, which tends to be slightly fattier, but probably not enough to matter, Halloran says.

Most of the evidence on the harmfulness of fish has been focused on pregnant women and children who weigh less than 45 pounds. Since your name is Bob and you shop at Whole Foods, I'm going to assume you're neither, but you may be interested in some of the warnings that apply to fish since you eat a lot of it.

One of the warnings that Halloran believes should have been included in two recent studies on fish - one by the Journal of the American Medical Association and one by the Institute of Medicine - is that pregnant women should avoid eating canned tuna. She says canned tuna can contain mercury levels as high as shark, swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel and other fish widely believed to be harmful enough to be on the do-not-eat list for pregnant women.

Another concern is the presence of nasty chemicals or Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). Since there tend to be more PCBs in farm-raised fish, it's generally a good idea to stick to wild fish. You might be surprised to learn that most of the canned salmon you find in stores is actually wild.

If you're spending a fortune on fresh wild salmon, you might want to reconsider - at least during the winter. Consumer Reports found widespread cheating during colder months and concluded that much of the fresh salmon advertised as wild fish was actually farm raised.

The report recommended against paying a premium for fresh wild salmon during winter months. It found that fresh wild salmon sold during summer months was wild as advertised.

Talk to the Food Dude at www.registerguard.com/blogs/index.php/fooddude. Or, send mail to Food Dude, The Register Guard, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2168.